The Civil War and Reconstruction

Topics

• Abolitionism
• African Resettlement
• Frederick Douglass
• Nat Turner Uprising
• Compromise of 1850
• Fugitive Slave Act
• Bleeding Kansas
• Election of 1860
• Dred Scott
• Harper's Ferry
• Secession
• Confederate States of America
• Early Battles
• Anaconda Plan
• Emancipation Proclamation
• Mathew Brady Photos
• Gettysburg
• Sherman's March
• Assassination of Lincoln
• Lincoln / Johnson Reconstruction
• Reconstruction Act of 1867
• KKK

Essential Questions

• What caused the Civil War, and could/should it have been avoided?
• Why did each of the attempts to politically prevent Civil War fail?
• Make a case for, or against, the Southern states' right to secede.
• Evaluate Lincoln's job as President of the United States.
• Evaluate the process and outcomes of reconstruction following the Civil War.

Resources

• Narratives from about 15 former slaves, recalling their experiences. They were recorded in the 1930's.
• Account of the Fort Sumter surrender.
• Impressions of Lincoln from a London newspaper reporter.
• Primary accounts of the surrender at Appomattox.
• Valley of the Shadow - Tons of great primary sources, including soldier records, newspapers, etc.
• Watercolor pictures painted by a Northern soldier during the Civil War.
• eMedia Videos: American Experience: Reconstruction: The Second Civil War. (2 parts, each 127 minutes long)
• The Cotton Kingdom, by Frederick Olmsted, on Google Books

Activities

• Debate whether or not the Civil War was inevitable using DebateGraph.
• Constructing the Reconstruction - What was the North thinking back then?